Black Inc.

Breaking The Silence – Israeli soldiers talk about the occupied territories

While reading this article on the NYT website about Israel’s rebuttal to the Goldstone Report (an investigation conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council on alleged war crimes during the Israeli invasion into Gaza; Dec. 2008 and Jan. 2009) I noticed a link to Breaking The Silence in the final paragraphs.

This is an independent website managed by veteran Israeli soldiers who feel the need to speak out about their experiences in the Israeli military. The identity of each participant is withheld save their rank, unit, and sometimes the location of an incident. Some testimonies are told by people who may have perpetrated an act while others are witnesses. Their mission statement does well at summing up their intentions:

“We demand accountability regarding Israel’s military actions in the Occupied territories perpetrated by us and in our name.”

The overall credibility of the testimonies can only be bolstered further by reading the roughly edited transcripts of their interviews. I have included three which I found to be striking for my own reasons; they are in no way the worst accounts. However, before I leave you to read these interviews I want to express my desire to conduct the same types of interviews with U.S. military personnel (active or not; any military conflict; any nature of incident positive or negative).

I know there are those of you out there who need an outlet of this sort to make your stories known. I know this because I have met some of you, and I have heard your stories; I have come to know your frustration and loneliness. Please, feel free to contact me by email at huntermblackburn@gmail.com if you’re interested in helping me put together a similar collection of testimonies.

“You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them.”

Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: Nachal 931
Place of incident: Nablus
Description: We sit and rest in one of the Arabs’ houses – sit on a couch – and in front of us there is this old woman. Really old, probably scratching 80-90, or so. She is giving us this look… that says, I imagine: “You came into my house, blew it up, now you’re on my couch. What are you waiting for – for me to serve you something to drink?” And the two guys sitting next to me – guys from the engineering platoon – were paying this game of… I don’t remember [what they called it] on the old woman. So I say: “Come on guys, get a life… to role up paper-balls from papers that were laid there, and throw them on her – have some respect.” And they say: “respect for whom? For a Shahid’s [suicide bomber] mother?” –“it doesn’t matter, a Shahid’s mother or not, this is an old woman in front of you – an old person in front of you. It doesn’t matter what this person’s repertoire is.” And I remember their looking at me with this amazed look of “Where have you come from? Where have you landed on us from? Are you with us? Where were you born? Where…” Their gaze just told me: “It is not that we… Where did you grow up?” such a horrified look of: “What?! What does this mean – throwing papers on a person… We are throwing papers on an Arab. There is a big difference.” I can’t tell you that I saw people who just molested others – if I ever saw it, for at the Nahal it is a bit different – among other things because the little difference I [my presence] would make at this checkpoint, that arrest, that patrol… I tried to prevent this kind of things from happening, but I came home for the weekend – after that time in Nablus – that weekend I went to the ‘prayers-road’, and I remember getting back home and feeling so dirty, so defiled. I am not sure if I remember correctly, I think I got home on the verge of tears, or even crying for those three days in Nablus – just going from one house to the next, and blowing house after house.

Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: Charuv battalion
Place of incident: Beit Ilma refugee camp
Description: I’m telling you, during Operation Determined Road, which took place in August, there were families who were thrown out of their homes because there was a TV there, and people wanted to watch Argentina vs. Nigeria [a World Cup soccer game].

Same thing happened where we were, in Ramallah and Bethlehem. What’s the dynamics? What does “thrown out” mean?

You have a really cool division commander, you belong in an experienced company, this one is not a beret, a second-lieutenant rank on the shoulder, and a ‘keep-your-distance’ kind of commander. It’s a man you go out with on Friday night. He’s one of the crowd; we had some laughs together. There’s this commander authority … cool. Now he too happens to be an Argentina fan; he too wants to watch the game. So you say to him: “Listen, man … here and there … this house and that house, they’re all the same, but here they have a TV, man”. He simply chucked out a family so he can watch Argentina-Nigeria. You see, I’m not even talking to you about the small things.

Rank: First Sergeant
Unit: Battalion 50 , Nahal brigade
Place of incident: Rammala, Bitonia
Description:April 2002

During Operation “Homat Magen” [Defensive Shield], our unit ended up going through and staying in various houses of Palestinians who had been temporarily removed to another place. In just about every place we entered, we did so with good intentions of not taking advantage or destroying, but over the course of a couple or three days, soldiers found themselves resting on the sofas watching television, the furniture was broken. People would wipe their asses with towels from the bathroom, making use of personal computers in the house. It is impossible to point out only one house because this happened to everyone in every house.

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